Canadian union vows to elevate the fight to save GM plant

Unifor National President Jerry Dias is greeted at the Renaissance Center in Detroit on Thursday, Dec., 20, 2018. He was to meet with General Motors executives about the future of the Oshawa assembly plant in Canada.(Photo: Romain Blanquart, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

Just hours after running four full-page ads in the Free Press and The Detroit News and meeting with senior executives of General Motors, Canadian union leaders promised to escalate its campaign against GM until the automaker commits to keeping the plant running.

“This campaign will escalate, it will not die down," Jerry Dias, Unifor president said in a media briefing Thursday. "We are determined that General Motors will live up to its commitment it made to us in 2016."

Unifor, the Canadian auto workers' union, and GM have a collective bargaining agreement that states GM will not close any Canadian plant before that agreement expires in September 2020, said Dias.

Yet, on Nov. 26, GM said Oshawa Assembly, along with four U.S. facilities, would lose product allocation beyond next year. Oshawa, which is about 30 miles east of Toronto, builds the Cadillac XTS and the Chevrolet Impala sedans. It also assembles the 2018 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups.

U.S. production of the Impala ends in March and Canadian production in the fourth quarter of 2019. Reports say the XTS ends production in late 2019. The redesigned 2019 Silverado and Sierra pickups are now built at GM's Fort Wayne Plant in Indiana.

"We expect (GM) is going to live up to their word," said Dias. "When they tell us this is about the betterment of GM — they made $6 billion in the past nine months. We’ve rewarded them handsomely. It’s time they showed us the same respect.”

At war with Canada

Unifor said GM leaders listened to proposed solutions and would consider them before issuing a response Jan. 7. For its part, GM said, "we had constructive discussions with Unifor in Detroit today and agreed to meet with their leadership again in the new year.”

Labor experts say it is not unusual for a union and company to meet because they do so regularly even outside of contract negotiations. But “it is a little unusual to go to headquarters and meet with high level executives,” said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of Industry, Labor & Economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

She said considering that so many jobs are at stake and the suddenness of GM’s news to shutter five plants, “I can see why that is something they would want to do.”

The trick is effective communication because Unifor's message has to resonate with a variety of audiences: GM, the Oshawa workforce and the community of Oshawa.

In jeopardy are some 2,500 plant jobs at Oshawa and 3,700 in four U.S. plants including 1,500 at Detroit-Hamtramck. Dias was clear that Unifor is fighting for both Canada and U.S. UAW workers.

“We are here to stand hand-in-hand with our brothers and sisters in the United States. This will be a campaign that we hope will get General Motors' attention in a meaningful way," said Dias, who emphasized the problem was GM's ability to "get very low wages in Mexico."

GM builds about 1 million vehicles in Mexico, yet consumers there buy only 240,000 vehicles a year, Dias said. Canadians, though, buy 300,000 vehicles annually, most of them GM because it is a top employer there.

Also, Canada kicked in $10.8 billion in 2009 when GM needed a government bailout and was forced to filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Dias said.

“People are very emphatic about the fact that they feel absolutely betrayed," Dias said. "We told GM that we were there 10 years ago as part of the solution," he continued noting that Unifor workers made concessions to help GM then. Also, GM still owes Canada $2.8 billion as repayment for its bailout, he said. If GM shutters the plant, Dias warned that Canadians will stop buying GM cars.

“They are naïve to believe that Canadians won’t betray them for their blatant disloyalty," said Dias. "When they needed us, we were there. Mexico never gave them a dime.”

Proposed solutions

GM CEO Mary Barra was not at the meeting with Unifor Thursday, Dias said. But other top GM officers including Alicia Boler Davis, GM's executive vice president of global manufacturing, were there, he said.

Unifor proposed several solutions to keep Oshawa operating including building the new Chevrolet Blazer SUV there rather than in Mexico, said Dias. Earlier this year, GM said it would build the Blazer in its Ramos, Mexico, plant despite criticism by President Donald Trump over making vehicles abroad.

Dias said the Oshawa plant is “one of the only plants in North America that can build both cars and trucks.”

Also, Unifor suggested extending its production of 2018 model pickups as well as the Impala and XTS cars in a continued robust market.

GM did not ask Unifor for any concessions, he said.

The meeting was “frustrating” and “emotional” for Unifor leaders, said Dias, but GM did not “unilaterally slam the door on” the suggestions.

“They know they are actually taking on Canada and they recognized this is going to have a very negative impact,” said Dias. “Am I optimistic? Yes. They recognize Canada as a very important market and we expect they will do the right thing.”